Freedom, Energy

October 29, 1990|By Ross C. Korves.

MT. PROSPECT — While I agree with Miro Todorovich`s comments about the need to seek more diversity in our energy sources, including clean coal technology and advanced nuclear power, I totally disagree with his ``essential point`` that the great expansion of our economy in the post-World War II period was due to our abundant energy supplies.

Our economic expansion after WW II, and since the first colonists, was due to our faith in and commitment to free men and free minds. The oil industry was created here because free men had the economic freedom to pursue new energy opportunities. Virtually all the oil technology used in the Middle East was created here. Having energy supplies in the ground means nothing, as the Middle East, Mexico and the Soviet Union have so clearly shown. The Japanese have also shown that having virtually no natural energy sources does not prevent a country from becoming a great industrial power.

We began to have difficulties in energy precisely when we reduced the freedom of energy producers and increased the power of the federal government to make decisions about energy production, pricing and use.